Title

How often do you smile?

Problem Scenario

I chose this experiment because it sounded fun! I also wondered about that when i was thinking about yawning.

Broad Question

How do people interact?

Specific Question

Is smiling contagious?

Hypothesis

I think it will be contagious, smiling is showing kindness.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

My smile.

Dependent Variable:

Smile and not smile.

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Pencil, paper, clipboard,

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

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General Plan

1. Go to a public area (grocery store).
2. Smile at a certain number of people (60)
3. Smile at the number of people you picked (60)
4. Collect your data of how many people smiled and did it.
5. Find your total, and graph it.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Not getting a ride.
Hannaford not being open.
Not having enough time to collect all of the data.
Not enough people.
Not needing a lot of food, so therefor not having enough time.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

I will only be smiling, so I don't have any.

Experimental Design

(add the correct headings from the experimental design page before beginning)

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Where did you get this?	Estimated Cost
Paper	Home
Clip board	Home
Pen	Home
Markers	Home

Data Table

	Number of people smiled back	Number of people didn't
Smiling	37	23
Not Smiling	20	40

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Background Research

Happiness(smiling) is contagious. It was proven in a large study that smiling is contagious, it showed that smiling can ripple through a crowd and create a wave of happiness. Laughing, singing, and smiling can make a lot of people happy.One persons happiness can effect another persons happiness for as much as a year
When you smile it is like when you yawn it is a contagious act.. Unhappiness can spread through a crowd. Smiling can spread around through family and neighbors and friends like the flu. Smiling has heath benefits for your body and your mind. Smiling has an intense impact on your immune system. It increases it's ability to fight illnesses. Some people say that smiling can prevent a plethora of chronic and debilitating illnesses. Even a forced smile can help you're sad. Some areas of succinct research that smiling might help are, reducing stress, increasing you're blood flow, reducing your blood pressure, and preventing a surplus of chronic illnesses.
The Journal of the American Medical Association has shown that creating a happy state of mind can reduce allergies, especially hay-fever victims. According to the University ofMaryland Medical Center says that smiling can reduce Heart Disease. Smiling can increase the linings surrounding you're arteries. Fifteen minutes of hearty laughter should be a part of a healthy lifestyle says a head researcher for the University of Maryland from a study done on to volunteers and there reactions to viewing comedy clips. Fourteen to twenty of the volunteers showed a positive reaction. So, even though smiling may be one small action, it can really have a huge affect!

References

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_smiling_contagious&isLookUp=1#Q=is%20smiling%20contagious
http://www.squidoo.com/Benefits-of-smiling

Detailed Procedure

Make a data table for when you do your experiment you will have some way of remembering how many people smiled and didn't smile back. Go to a public place where there are a lot of people. Once you are there, smile at (60) people. Your number can be a number of choice, you don't have to do 60 people. Also, don't smile at (60) more people, just look at them and don't have any expression. If they smile at you when you have no expression you can then smile back. If you want you can bring a friend and have them walk a couple feet behind you and see if the person smiles at your friend.

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Results

All Raw Data

All raw data in lab notebook.

Graphs

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Data Analysis

There were 37 people who smiled back when I smiled at them, and there were 23 people who didn't smile back when I smiled at them. 40 people didn't smile back when I didn't smile at them, and 20 people who did smile.

Conclusion

My hypothesis was correct, even though less people smiled than I thought. my hypothesis was somewhat right.

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Discussion

Smiling is kindness, so it can benefit the community by making everybody happy because you smile and show kindness to them. I could bring a friend, to improve my project, I could have them walk behind me when I smile and see if the person I smiled at smiles at my friend. The specific question, "Is smiling contagious?" can be easily answered. Yes, it is contagious, because when you smile at someone it has an effect on them. It can be a positive or negative effect. So, the effect would normally be positive unless it is a rude smile like, a sarcastic kind of smile.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

It can benefit the community because smiling is showing kindness. So, it could make people happier than they already are.

Abstract

The main idea of my project was to smile at random people in a public place, I went to Hannaford's, and then I was to record the data. However many people smiled or didn't smile at me was recorded. The whole project was pretty much just to see if smiling is contagious. Even though other scientists have proved this true, I proved it in my own way.